How to Make Sushi Without a Mat

John and I have a thing for sushi. Sticky rice, crunchy veggies, spicy seafood, plus that wasabi, ginger soy combo? Umami ftw.

Veggie, california, spicy tuna, fire spitting dragon (is that even a name?) – we eat it all. And while sushi is more of a treat that we save for nights out, it’s also fun to make it at home. But as you know, having one more thing around the house – i.e. a bamboo mat – isn’t really my thing. But you don’t need a mat to make sushi. You just need a few simple ingredients and a towel.

Yep, a towel.

Start by making the perfect sticky sushi rice and chopping up your veggies of choice.

We don’t have access to much sushi-grade seafood in the Midwest so I most often stick with veggies. But if you live near the coast, get crazy and do the dang thang. (Also, invite me over because I love seafood sushi.)

The towel trick:

A thick towel acts just like a bamboo mat and also wipes up your mess when you’re done: win-win. Because it’s so flexible it allows you to shape and roll the rice effortlessly into a beautiful roll. Oh how I love cutting corners.

This method not only allows you to make a traditional sushi roll, you can also go inside out (rice on the outside, nori on the inside). WHAAAATT?

Simply flatten on the rice, gently flip it over, top with veggies and roll away as usual.

You can even top your rolls with avocado by layering on thin slices of ripe avocado, topping it with plastic wrap and forming it once again with your towel. Slice, remove plastic and “voila.” So easy and a serious “wow” effect. Your friends will be impressed.

So what’s stopping you from making sushi at home? Nada. Now go forth and make rolls my child!

Start by preparing your rice. Rinse rice in a fine mesh strainer until your water runs clear. Then add to a medium saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Once it boils reduce heat to low, cover and cook until water is completely absorbed – about 15 minutes.

In the meantime, add vinegar, sugar and salt to a small saucepan and heat over medium heat stirring occasionally until sugar and salt are dissolved. Place in a jar or dish and cool in the fridge until rice is ready.

Once the rice is done, kill the heat and add the cooled vinegar mixture and stir with a rubber spatula or fork as to not overmix. It will appear wet but will dry up as you lightly stir to release heat. It should be sticky and completely dry once it’s ready.

In the meantime, prep your veggies by chopping them into thin pieces. If they’re too bulky they won’t allow the sushi to roll well.

Now it’s time to roll: grab a thick towel and fold it over into a rectangle and place it on a flat surface. Top with plastic wrap, then with a sheet of nori. Using your hands dipped in water (to avoid sticking), pat a very thin layer of rice all over the nori, making sure it’s not too thick or your roll will be all rice and no filling.

Then, arrange a serving of your veggies or preferred filling in a line at the bottom 3/4 of the rice closest to you (see photo).

Start to roll the nori and rice over with your fingers, and once the veggies are covered, roll over the plastic wrap and towel, using it to mold and compress the roll (see photo). Continue until it’s all the way rolled up.

Slice with a sharp knife and set aside.

To make the inside out roll, follow this awesome tutorial. See photos for how to apply a layer of avocado on the outside.

Talk About It

This is pretty brilliant. I was just making sushi the other night, and was reminded how annoying it is when little bits of rice get stuck in my mat that I then have to clean out. Next time I’m trying mat-free.

Your sushi is so pretty! I only tried making it for the first time recently but it turned out pretty well. Thanks for all your tips, I’d love to try the inside out rolls :)
Oh, and I LOVE pickled ginger

I love making sushi. I think it gets a bad rap – seems complicated at first but once you get the hang of it, it’s one of the more easier dinners to make. I have mats but don’t use them, I’d love to try this towel method!

Oh, lawd. My boyfriend and I used this recipe to make sushi for our anniversary dinner, and everything turned out incredible. Homemade sushi is an aphrodisiac, apparently. WHO KNEW?

We took our newly discovered sushi skills on the road last weekend and had a sushi & Star Trek party at a friend’s house. As young folk drowning in college debt, we’ve found roll-your-own to be a revelation. We have seen the light. All hail homemade sushi.

Oh my goodness! You have saved my little pregnant self. I have been CRAVING sushi for the longest time, but it is so expensive! So, my husband and I decided to make it together on Valentine’s Day using your tutorial and recipe and we fell in love with it! It was so much easier than I thought it would be and your tutorial was so helpful. Thanks for the recipe and for helping my husband and I make some wonderful Valentine’s Day memories. :)

Found this tutorial as I didn’t have a mat. Very helpful! One thing I will mention though, if you are using traditional sushi rice, you may want to use less water. Following this recipe with my sushi rice I ended up with very mushy rice. I looked on the bag and noticed that it called for only 1 1/2 cups of water instead of the 2 cups recommended by this recipe.

Yeah, I think you could. Just leave it out and press the rice onto plastic wrap or parchment paper, then add fillings, roll tightly (making sure your plastic wrap/parchment works as a guide and doesn’t actually get inside the roll). Then slice and serve! Hope that helps/makes sense.

I see from your cut roll pic that the rice is catching on your blade.
Traditional sushi knives are thin (top to bottom) so the opposite of a normal french chef’s blade which is pretty much the only blade I use in the kitchen these days. But if I were a stickler, I’d use something that looks more like a fillet knife as it presents less drag to the individual rice kernels. Also, my mom always had a wet rag nearby to wipe both sides of the blade after a couple strokes. The operative word is “wet” as this will lubricate the blade and again, leave a much cleaner cut without the rice being dragged out from the cut. Not that important when eating at home, but if preparing for others it adds to the presentation of a skilled chef. Neat idea with the towel.

I’ve found that what’s more important than getting an ideal knife is to take the extra step of wrapping the roll in plastic, sort of like a sausage. Cutting is such a breeze that way. If you do that, then you can just use a good, sharp chef’s knife.

I’m vegan and don’t like raw veggies (gasp). However, I loved this recipe. I was very skeptical I would like it because the vinegar/sugar/salt combination smelled so much like vinegar, and because of my dislike of raw peppers and avocados. The only changes I made were the cucumber was omitted, and I used coconut sugar instead of table sugar. It was so delicious. I haven’t been able to have sushi in over five years and have made this recipes many times since. Thank you for making it so simple!

Nice post. But, honestly, those bamboo mats cost almost nothing and they strike me as being very minimalist. They have a stiffness to them and they’re designed for the task at hand. And, in my opinion, wiping stains off a small bamboo mat is easier than getting them off a towel.
If you completely encase your mat in clear plastic, which is what you do with inside-out rolls, then you don’t even have to wash the mat after you’re done.
As for rice, I would suggest opting for medium-grain rice (short grain is ideal) from a Japanese market. The surface of your rolls will be smoother and not on the prickly side, which is what you get by using long-grain rice. And I definitely would spoon the rice into a separate bowl after it’s cooked, because it will continue to cook in your hot pot. Some Japanese even cool the rice with a fan as they’re mixing in the vinegar mixture with the rice.
I’ve found that wrapping a separate sheet of clear plastic over the finished roll like a sausage helps tremendously in the final cutting step. You’ll get nice clean cuts that, again, give your presentation a professional touch. BTW, the video tutorial shows a person using a full nori sheet to make an inside-out roll. I’ve often seen chefs cut the sheet in half (length-wise) to make the resulting rolls more bite-sized.

Thanks for the feedback! I find that there are many recipes that require just “one more thing”, i.e. a bamboo mat, donut pan, etc., and I seek to provide recipes for people who don’t want all the extras.

OMGoodness!!!! This is delicious and I’m sorry I waited to so long in making this! Sooooooo easy!! I put shrimp, crab and cream cheese in mine. I also mixedsome siracha sauce with yum-yum sauce and put it in and on. In heaven!!! Thanks!!

Dana, thank you so much for this recipe! I made it for dinner tonight – the first time I made sushi ever – and it got a big thumbs up from my husband and I. We LOVE sushi but it’s obviously expensive so we were pretty excited to find out we could make our own! We’re thinking next time we’ll try adding tempura fried fish! Thank you!

I did this with my kids after reading about it on your site and we had a blast. It was fun, easy and we just used wax paper because it was in the cabinet no towel or plastic wrap. Worked fine. Costs about $1 per roll per person. That’s my kind of sushi. You’ve brought sushi into the hinge of the everyday person. Congrats, minimalist baker, you’re my hero.

Thank you! I just had the brilliant idea “let’s try sushi at home!” and went online to see about kits. $30? For a once in a while thing? No thank you. Towel. Yup. Sign me up. Thanks for sharing :) I doubt mine will come out as pretty as yours, but here’s hoping! Any idea, would a silicone baking mat work fine too?

My boyfriend and I have everything ready to start making sushi tonight but we don’t have the rice vinegar or white wine vinegar. All we have is balsamic vinegar and white vinegar. Should we give it a try and maybe add a few steps to change the flavor of those or just wait until we have the right ingredients at another time? Thanks

My husband and I made this last night for the first time, along with your recipe for miso soup and they both turned out AMAZING! As much sushi as we eat, it’s hard to believe that it was so easy! Thank you! Your site has been a wonderful resource for my family. We’re transitioning to a vegan diet and your recipes have helped to keep meals fun and yet unpredictable! ☺

Thank you so much for this blog post! Too many recipes put a lot of emphasis on the necessity of a bamboo mat for making sushi rolls. You’ve really made homemade sushi a reality for me with this easy how-to guide for the everyday cook. Can’t wait to try making some avocado rolls!

Whoever commented on short grain rice was right on the money.When you order sticky rice it always short grain or also called calrose rice in the grocery store. Long grain is when you want fluffy seperated grains. Also rinsing the rice before cooking takes away from the stickiness as well- I would not rinse rice I was trying to make sticky.

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Hi, I'm Dana! I create simple, delicious recipes that require 10 ingredients or less, one bowl, or 30 minutes or less to prepare.